I'm Just Sharing

I won’t be doing this all that often, but I’ve had some random thoughts that I wanted to put out there, mainly to get them off my chest, but to see what you think about them. More personal stuff, but let’s see where it all goes.

I’m wondering if it’s time to change how we treat certain criminal acts. Most of the time people are sent to jail for what I deem are more emotional acts than criminal acts. Does it really behoove us to put someone in jail for 10 to 25 years on a first time drunk driving offense that kills someone, or putting someone in jail for 3 to 5 years for marijuana possession? I’m not saying don’t punish them in some fashion, but it’s costly putting these folks in with the really, really bad guys. There has to be options that still punish, but make these people still contribute something to society, and potential victims, in other ways, doesn’t it?

Also, something different has to be done with released sexual predators. Right now, even if they serve their entire sentence, they’re harassed wherever they go when released, can’t get jobs, can’t live here or there, and thus what options do they really have outside of prison? Once again, not saying we don’t punish these people for their crimes, but there has to be a better way of handling this issue.

In New York, Governor Patterson is taking heat from many sides because he’s proposed cutting different types of programs across the board, and taxing this thing or that thing that someone else determines they don’t like. There are even commercials being produced against him from different organizations. Thing is, no one wants to be affected, but no one has offered up anyone else for cuts, or come up with another way to do things. Everyone always wants to protect their own piece of the pie, but when everyone’s hurting, no one deserves to be protected way more than anyone else. Fairness has to be maintained in some way. Isn’t it time people who decide to complain about something offer up something else as a legitimate alternative?

The same goes for President Obama. He’s bee in office exactly two months, and everyone feels he should have solved every problem in the world, let alone the United States, that took 8 years to mess up. No one can truthfully say he hasn’t reached out to the other party, yet they’ve found that, for the first time in eight years, they can bind together almost unanimously to try to upset the process; so much for bipartisanship. Get over it, Republicans; you lost the election, and your popularity as a party is tumbling drastically as you subconsciously have appointed Rush Limbarf as the leader of your party. The Republican party is quickly heading towards separating into a southern states versus everyone else who wants to be considered as a Republican, and, if no one’s been paying attention, that’s happened before in history; anyone remember the Federalist party? For that matter anyone remember that many of today’s southern Republicans used to be democrats? You’re close to becoming a non-entity, like religion; anyone seen the stats on religion in America lately? Those who consider themselves as being part of a religion is as close to becoming a minority as it can get; give it ten more years. Both of y’all better get it together, or you’ll be, as the original Star Trek alluded to, “dunseled”.

What’s with this rash of two new sets of killers, the ones who decide to take out a bunch of people before offing themselves, and these guys who decide their entire families must be killed before offing themselves? Is there really anyone left who can legitimately say they don’t believe gun control is a good thing? Is anyone else getting tired of hearing “he was so quiet” when they really mean “he was that weird kid who sat all by himself because people picked on him”? Anyone notice it’s always men? I’m not in school, but someone’s not paying attention to what’s going on anymore, and parents are as much to blame for not knowing what’s going on with their kids as anyone, in my opinion. I’m thinking we need more Boys and Girls Clubs, and some more proactive punishment against bullies. Using the excuse “they’re just acting like kids” isn’t going to get it done anymore.

And, as a sidebar gripe, what’s with the ones who keep forgetting that babies aren’t Sketch-o-Matics and try to shake them quiet (and they end up quiet for good)? How did this get to be a modern phenomenon, and who started this mess, since we all believe that this type of behavior is learned?

Isn’t it about time that these men who believe hitting women is a good thing (yeah, it’s their fault because they made you mad; punks) should be getting a little bit of “an eye for an eye” and be put in a lineup of all women to be slapped and kicked, like a fraternity initiation? By the way, I’m against that mess also, as more and more young adults, who must have a great sense of need to put themselves through stupid mess like that, are getting themselves either killed or seriously hurt? Hazing; a fancy word for bullying.

I doubt the show Entertainment Tonight goes around the world, but am I the only one who noticed, and was disappointed, that they wouldn’t even use the name of one of the competitors on their show, Nancy O’Dell, who was a competitor on Dancing With The Stars (no, I don’t watch it), just because she works for a competing show? If she hadn’t gotten hurt and had made it into the final group of competitors, would they have just stopped covering the show in its entirety? And, since she’s going to be up for competing on the next reiteration of the show, will they continue this stupidity?

Has anyone really been paying attention to the weather? Europe had some very nasty weather this winter; hurricanes and typhoons are getting stronger and coming more often; some areas have more drought, some areas have more floods; we’re hearing of more firestorms than ever before; tornadoes have lost their mind! Does anyone who’s under the age of 40 other than Elizabeth Hasselbeck really believe global warming isn’t upon us? Have you heard how much glaciers have receded, how much ice has withdrawn from both Greenland and Iceland, lakes and some rivers have disappeared in Russia, and there’s actually land being seen in Antarctica and the North Pole? Have you heard that not only is the hole in the ozone getting bigger, but there’s a second one forming? Incidences of skin cancer are jumping, folks; I hope we’re not too late to save the environment from catastrophe.

I’m going to make a case that there’s something happening with our foods that are changing humans in interesting ways. Right now, the average height for women is 5′ 5 1/2″. In 1981, the average height for women was 5′ 3 1/2″. At the turn of the 20th century, the average height for women was 5′ even. The average height for men is now 5′ 10″; back in 1981, it was 5′ 8 1/2″. At the turn of the 20th century, the average height for men was 5′ 4″. There are women who are suffering from bone loss who eat lots of vegetables, yet don’t seem to get any Vitamin D from it. There are higher incidences of people with heart problems and clogged arteries now, yet at the beginning of the 20th century they ate more fat than we do now and weighed less, had fewer heart ailments, and little illnesses related to cholesterol problems. Yet, on average we live longer. We’re changing at a much faster rate as far as evolution goes than Darwin ever predicted. At 6′ 1/2″, I used to be considered tall; now there are 14 and 15 year old girls taller than me. It’s unnatural what’s going on, but I don’t know enough about biology or nutrition to have an answer as to why. But it’s somewhat scary if you ask me.

And finally, one back to what we usually talk about. I’ve written comments on fewer blogs lately, but it’s not because I have less to say. It’s because I’ve been taking a little bit more time lately in looking at people’s blogs and some of the products they market, because I figure everyone’s taken time to put some of these things up, so why not stop and take a look at some of them. I’m still wondering how many of you are actually taking time to check out other people’s about pages. Many of us want to make money, and we want people to visit our blogs and read what we have to say. I’m realizing that, even with all the content I’m putting out there, I’m not honoring other people if I don’t take some time to at least look at what they’re doing and putting up. For instance, how many of you have noticed the types of things Sire has at the bottom of his Wassup Blog (though lots of things change, I noticed something there that I’m thinking my wife might like)? Or even a site like Uber Affiliate, who has things he’s advertising that look like a lot of what we have, but every ad he has is something I’ve never seen elsewhere before (at least I don’t remember it)? In the end, it is supposed to be all about us, or can we still learn something by seeing what someone else has on their site?

Why is there so much hate towards poor people? How come not enough people commented on this post on poverty on Blog Action Day? I hate that, whenever anyone talks about either welfare or Medicaid that suddenly it’s open season on the poor. People are always saying that poor people should just get jobs and go to work. How smug are some of you feeling now that unemployment is moving towards an all time high? How many people can care for their families in today’s world when minimum wage is only $6.55 an hour, especially if they have kids? If they were allowed to work and still get some assistance, even only another $2.50 an hour from the government, they might have a realistic chance at a basis living in America, but those aren’t the rules? Instead of talking about welfare mothers, why not come up with a way to train them and have daycare so they can leave their kids with someone competent, learn a nice job skill that may pay them more money, then help them find work, instead of deriding them? And, by the way, for those who use “welfare mothers” and think of minorities first, 2/3rds of all welfare mothers in America are white.

I think I’ve ranted enough. These are short takes on topics that I could probably expound on for a long time, but we don’t need to go there. I’m interested in your thoughts, believe it or not, because, though I have my opinions, I know some of you have other opinions, or things you’d like to say. I’m betting this one will be a spammer’s dream; don’t worry, I’ll eliminate all of it.

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